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The consortium formed by EDF Energies Nouvelles and Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar has submitted the world`s cheapest price for Saudi Arabia’s first solar project, in Sakaka.

The Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO), announced that EDF-Masdar consortium submitted the lowest offer for the project at US$1.79/kWh, coming in 24 per cent cheaper than the second lowest bid from Acwa Power.

A total of eight bids were submitted by pre-qualified regional and international developers to enter the tender.

The project will involve the development, operation and maintenance of a greenfield solar PV plant near the city of Sakaka, in the northern region of Saudi Arabia. The power purchase agreement (PPA) is to be signed by the end of January.

As we reported in mid April, REPDO qualified a total of 27 companies for300MW Sakaka solar project and 25 companies for the 400MW Dumat Al Jandal wind project, which arewithin the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP)

In August, Saudi Arabia, released the request for proposals (RFP) for the Dumat Al Jandal wind project.

Commenting on the progress of the NREP, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Engineer Khalid Al-Falih said:

“We are moving forward to diversify the Kingdom’s energy mix and to build a more sustainable and cleaner energy system that benefits Saudi Arabia and its citizens. Round two of the NREP will be launched before the end of this year, keeping us firmly on track to deliver 9.5GW of renewable energy by 2023.”

“The NREP will build economic resilience and deliver real economic benefits by creating more than 7000 jobs, increasing Saudi Arabia’s non-oil GDP and nurturing a clean tech startup industry; it is a program designed to boost the domestic renewable value chain and encourage foreign direct investment in the Kingdom, bringing prosperity to our citizens as part of the goals established in Vision 2030.”